SlasheR

Austin "SlasheR" Liddicoat is an AR Slayer for Team EnVyUs. He is a 2016 World Champion and is best known for his time on FaZe Clan, Denial and EnVyUs.

Biography

SlasheR started playing video games at the age of four, first playing the Nintendo 64. He was motivated to embark on competitive Call of Duty after realizing he could travel and win money while playing video games at high level.

Black Ops 2

SlasheR only competed at two major events during the Black Ops 2 season (MLG Spring Championship 2013 and UMG Dallas 2013, placing 17-20th at both events. He was playing on relatively unknown teams - Ignite and MRKN Clan. This was SlasheR's first taste of competitive Call of Duty, and the beginning of a prosperous career.

Advanced Warfare

At the beginning of the Advanced Warfare (AW) season, SlaheR moved around a few teams, and performed well individually at several LAN events, including a 3rd place finish at UGC Niagara 2014 with VexX Gaming, netting SlasheR's first cash prize from a major LAN tournament. SlasheR, now teaming with seasoned pro's Chino, Sender and previous teammate Miyagi, finished 2nd at the MLG CoD League Season 3 Playoffs under Noble eSports. This event, and SlasheR's strong individual performances throughout, gained him significant interest from a number of top teams. FaZe recruited him to their roster to replace Karma, who had moved to OpTic Nation. On his first top team, SlasheR did not disappoint, winning his first event with the squad MLG Columbus. However, after a poor 13-16th finish at UMG Orlando 2015, Apathy and Censor left to join Team JusTus, and were replaced on FaZe by Parasite and Enable. This new FaZe roster attended the Call of Duty Championship 2015 (now playing under FaZe Red, and placed well in 3rd, beating out strong opposition such as OpTic Gaming and EnVyUs, before ultimately losing 3-1 to Team Revenge in the loser’s finals. Following the dissolution of FaZe Red and FaZe Black, SlasheR and Enable were retained for FaZe Clan and were joined by ZooMaa and Huke. This team competed at 2 events together, and the conclusion of the MLG Pro League Season 2 Regular Season, where they finished in 2nd place. The team attended the MLG Pro League Season 2 Playoffs, where again they placed 2nd, earning SlasheR an X Games Silver Medal. SlasheR then left to join Denial, where he would remain for the rest of the AW season. Unfortunately, he failed to win an event with the team, placing 2nd at both UMG Washington D.C. 2015 and the MLG World Finals 2015, and 3rd at UMG Dallas 2015. Despite not winning an event with Denial, SlasheR finished the season as a standout player in Advanced Warfare, and was a hot prospect heading into Black Ops 3.

Black Ops 3

The Black Ops 3 season was to be SlasheR’s most successful thus far. He was recruited by Team EnVyUs, joining veteran pros JKap, TeePee and ACHES. This roster, despite its talent, started the season poorly. They team failed to place higher than 5-8th at any LAN tournaments. These results resulted in TeePee and his long-time partner ACHES being dropped, after finishing 5th in the 2016 NA CWL Stage 1 Regular Season. Consequently, John and, SlasheR’s previous teammate in FaZe, Apathy, were both picked up by Team EnVyUs, to replace ACHES and TeePee, for the rest of the Black Ops 3 season. Despite another slow start, finishing 7-8th at MLG Anaheim Open 2016, the team began to improve and found consistency, coming 1st in both the 2016 NA CWL Stage 2 Regular Season (although this was only due to OpTic Gaming forfeiting 4 series due to CWL rulings and suspensions), and the 2016 NA CWL Stage 2 Playoffs. At MLG Orlando Open 2016, the final event before champs, the team finished 2nd to OpTic Gaming.

Winning CoD Champs 2016

EnVyUs were placed in Group G with fellow NA team Cloud 9, EU squad Team Vitality and the Australian arm of Orbit - Team Orbit ANZ. SlasheR and his team won the group finishing 3-0 series count, and 9-3 map count. Due to OpTic finishing 2nd in group H, the teams met in winner's bracket round 1. nV took the match 3-1, winning the final map (Fringe CTF) 1-0, after Karma made a notoriously questionable play with a dart, taking him out of the action while SlasheR himself made the only flag cap of the game. In winner's bracket round 2, SlasheR and nV faced FaZe, and won the series convincingly 3-0, winning the Uplink on Evac by 18 points to 8. In the 3rd round of winners bracket, they came up against the surprise package of the tournament, FAB Games eSports, in what was a closer contest than the FaZe match. nV won the Hardpoint and Uplink comfortably, but dropped the Search and Destroy 5-6. However, nV closed out the series 3-1, winning the Game 4 CTF 3-2, after John secured the match, capturing a flag with only 22 seconds remaining. Apathy got both the other caps for the team. They now faced Elevate in the winners finals. nV took the first map comfortably, winning Evac Hardpoint 250-100, notably all players on the team had over 1 minute in the Hardpoint. Elevate won the Search and Destroy and the Uplink though, leaving SlasheR and his team fighting for their tournament life. Apathy and John performed particularly well on Stronghold CTF, going 26-13 and 24-13 (k/d) respectively, carrying the team to the win. With the series now tied 2-2 going into Infection Search and Destroy, their outlook still looked in doubt, given Elevate’s record in Search and Destroy. EnVy, thanks to a strong performance all round but particularly from Apathy, won the map 6-2, a significant victory over a team renowned for Search and Destroy. Now in Grand Finals, they faced EU team Splyce. Surprisingly, nV lost the first Hardpoint, a mode they had only lost twice previously in the tournament. However, they won the next 3 maps with reasonable ease, winning the series 3-1, and crowning them Champions for the 2016 Call of Duty World League Championship.

Infinite Warfare

Due to Apathy's marriage and JKap's and SlasheR's school commitments, the team were less practiced than normal and placed uncharacteristically poorly at the first event of the season 2017 CWL Las Vegas Open, finishing in 17-32nd place. As a result of this, and poor placing's in the the online MLG GameBattles 2K Series tournaments, nV's place in pools at the next event, 2017 CWL Atlanta Open was far from secure. However, winning a 2k tournament, the team just managed to have enough pro points to make pool play. They played well at the event, but fell just short, finishing 3rd. The team then flew to Paris to compete at the 2017 CWL Paris Open. Surprisingly, the team finished as poorly as they had done back in Vegas, placing 9-12th, following back to back 3-0 losses to OpTic Gaming and Splyce. The team practiced heavily after the event, knowing that their placing in Paris was well below their expected standard, and placed top 4 at both of the subsequent online 2K series. The next event for the squad was the Dallas Open, and the team did fair slightly better. Losses in pool play to OpTic, and the surprisingly strong GosuCrew who came from the Open Bracket, meant EnVy had to play through losers bracket. The team made an admirable run, beating SetToDestroyX, Cloud 9 and Luminosity, before eventually being beating in a map 5 by eventual runners up eUnited, placing SlasheR and EnVy in 5-6th for the event.

Despite their relatively poor placings at the first 4 events, EnVy were still high enough in the pro points rankings to qualify as the 5th seed for the 2017 CWL Global Pro League Stage 1. EnVy were placed into group red with the top EU team Splyce, the top APAC team Mindfreak, as well as fellow NA Squad Cloud 9, to compete in week 1. They began the weekend up against the overall 4th seed Splyce, and lost a close match 3-1. SlasheR knew his own and the teams performance was well below standard, and they managed to turn it around. EnVy won the remainder of their matches over the weekend against Cloud 9 and Mindfreak, as the team clearly improved from their opening series. For the final match against Splyce, EnVy would have to win the match 3-0 to top the group. EnVy surprised many to do just that, winning the Hardpoint and Search and Destroy narrowly, before completing the clean sweep in a more comfortable Uplink. Following their 1st place in the group stages, EnVy went to Stage 1 playoffs as a top seed. SlasheR and the squad were unable to play at their normal standard however, losing to both Luminosity and OpTic, placing 7-8th for the event.

Although disappointed with their placing at playoffs, having lost to arguably the top 2 teams in Infinite Warfare, SlasheR was still hopeful of improvement at the 2017 CWL Anaheim Open. However the event was to be EnVy's worst of the year so far. After a poor performance in pool play, where they lost to Epsilon eSports, Luminosity and even the team from open bracket, Rogue. Despite winning their match against Red Reserve EU, EnVy still finished last in the group as Rogue and a superior map count. Falling immediately to loser's bracket round 1, they faced Team Allegiance. Given that the Allegiance squad was up and coming players, SlasheR and his teammates were heavy favourites to win the match up. In a shock defeat though, SlasheR's weekend hit its lowest point, as they fell 3-2, losing the game 5 Retaliation Search and Destroy in a crushing round 11, 5-6. EnVyUs placed 21st-24th, SlasheR's worst ever placing at a major tournament.

As a result of the poor placing, it was expected by many that a roster change was imminent. Numerous rumours involving a number of players were linked with moves to the nV roster, but ultimately, no deals were struck. The roster, that had now been together over a year, decided to bootcamp for 2 weeks prior to their group weekend at Stage 2 of the Global Pro League. The consensus in the community was that EnVy had been drawn into the toughest pool, with OpTic Gaming, Epsilon eSports, and Cloud 9, and many polls suggested fans didn't expect them to qualify for playoffs. However, the team proved the doubters wrong, beating all the opposition except OpTic, to manage 2nd place in the group, and qualify for Playoffs, which took place only a week later. Again EnVy surprised, and went unbeaten all the way to the Grand Final's, taking out top opposition in FaZe Clan, Luminosity Gaming and eUnited on their way. Meeting them in the final was the squad they had failed to overcome in the group stage, OpTic Gaming. Coming from the losers bracket however, OpTic had to win 2 best of 5 series. To EnVy's disappointment, they did just that, winning both series 3-1. Despite missing out on the trophy, SlasheR's improvement from the top 24 placing at Anaheim was impressive on all counts, and hoped to continue this going into the final event of the year.

2017 World Championship

Despite the rollercoaster year, Team EnVyUs had a very impressive resume at previous Call of Duty Championships, reaching the Grand Finals 3 out of 4 years. They were also the only squad to return with the same roster to two Championships in an attempt to defend their title. Placed in a pool with Team eLevate, Mindfreak.Black and Projekt Evil, the team expected to, and ultimately did, cruise through to bracket play. Dropping only one map in pool play, EnVy went in as 1st seed in their group, to face against the second place team from Group A, Epsilon eSports. A familiar match up from Stage 2 of the Pro League, EnVy overcame this first hurdle with relative ease, despite dropping first map, winning 3-1. Moving on to Saturday, the team came up against one of the suggested dark horses for the tournament in Ghost Gaming. Again however, EnVy proved too experienced for this newly composed squad, and won a tight match 3-0. In one of the most incredible series, SlasheR and the squad made a hugely impressive comeback over eUnited in the Winners semi's. With the backup of SlasheR's slaying, the team overcame a 0-10 deficit in Uplink, winning 12-10. The comeback was caught on listen in, and SlasheR along with the team was incredibly composed and displayed fine teamwork to make what many thought impossible happen.

The team would face their so far unbeatable foe in OpTic Gaming in the Winners final, for a spot in the Grand Final. They dropped the first map once again, despite a 42 kill game from SlasheR, he was overshadowed by double 40+ kill games from Scump and FormaL. However, SlasheR continued to show strength in Search & Destroy particularly, and Uplink, winning the next 2 maps. With the momentum with them, they completed the victory on Map 4 hardpoint, securing a place in the Grand Final - SlasheR's 2nd in as many years. It was once again OpTic Gaming who EnVy would face in the final. Like Stage 2 Playoffs, OpTic would again have to beat EnVy in 2 best of 5 series. EnVy suffered a heart breaking defeat however, dropping the first series 3-1, before completely running out of momentum and being swept 3-0 by OpTic in the second. It was a case of OpTic being at their very best while on the hunt for their first World Championship, and Team EnVyUs simply seeming devoid of the spark which they had shown throughout the tournament. SlasheR was unable to replicate his impressive slaying performance from the earlier match. Despite the loss, once again SlasheR had shown his resilience and teamwork, and cemented himself as one of the top AR players in Call of Duty.